Libertarian nominees for U.S. Senate this year polled approximately 950,000 votes, although an exact count is several weeks away and it may be somewhat higher. This is surprising, because the party only had nominees on the ballot in 13 states, the fewest for U.S. Senate since 1990.
There are always 33 or 34 U.S. Senate seats up (not counting special elections). The most Libertarians who who were on the November ballot for U.S. Senate was 23, in 2000. Thanks to Greg Kaza for this news.
At the November 5 election, Aaron Starr, a long-time leader of the California Libertarian Party, was elected to the Oxnard City Council. Oxnard has a population of 198,488. It has six city council districts.
All city elections in California are non-partisan, with no party labels, but Starr is well-known in Oxnard as a Libertarian Party member.
For the first time, Puerto Rico voters voted for President in the general election this week. The ballot only listed Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. The tentative results: Harris 709,902; Trump 256,505.
Puerto Rico also voted for the seventh time on what its political status should be. Statehood won a majority, with 57% of the vote. The other choices were independence and independence in association with the United States.
Puerto Rico also elected a Governor, and Jenniffer Gonzalez, the pro-statehood candidate, appears to have won. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
On November 5, Libertarian Party nominee Frank Gilbert was elected Constable of Big Rock Township, Pulaski County, Arkansas. Big Rock Township is one of only two townships in Pulaski County. Pulaski County is the most populous county in Arkansas. Big Rock Township contains Little Rock and has about 60% of the county population.
The race was a two-person contest between Gilbert and the Republican nominee, Walter Stoermer. Gilbert received 43,691 votes, or 58.48%.
Big Rock Township is the most populous jurisdiction that has ever elected a Libertarian in a partisan race. The previous high point for Libertarians winning partisan races came in 2019, when Libertarian nominee Michael Korchak was elected District Attorney of Broome County, New York. Korchak was the noominee of no other party in that election. Thanks to Art DiBianca for this news. Here is a link to the election returns. Scroll down to about the middle.
Here is Gilbert’s campaign website.
As far as is known, the last time a minor party won a partisan office in Arkansas was in 2012, when Green Party nominee Fred Smith was elected to the legislature. However, he had no ballot-listed opponents, just a write-in opponent.
Here is the article at reason.com.
Also see this article. It has the results of ranked choice voting measures involving local governments.
